Showing posts with label 3rd Grade. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 3rd Grade. Show all posts

Saturday, March 19, 2016

Brownie My Promise, My Faith Pin

Here we are about two years out from the last time Tessa earned a My Promise, My Faith pin and I feel nearly the same way about the requirements as I did then. Again, this award seems to be written directly to the girl, but it feels so abstract and intangible. Even though Tessa has two more years of knowledge, life experience, and skill under her belt, I still can't imagine her tackling this on her own. In all honesty, it was a booger for me to plan. Researching and aligning the steps to a specific line of the Girl Scout Law is very time consuming and really not all that much fun.

My goal for this pin was to design a scouting helper that was accessible to Tessa...something enjoyable that was simple and flowed from one step to the next with ease. Instead of having a bunch of separate little projects, I poured all of the steps into one cohesive, easy-to-use booklet. I ended up putting a lot of time and energy into this project, so I was a little happy cloud when it worked just as I had planned.

The resources listed below are the ones we used to fulfill the requirements of the Brownie My Promise, My Faith Pin. These requirements may also be found on page 37 of The Brownie Girl's Guide to Girl Scouting.

My Promise, My Faith pin


My Promise, My Faith Pin

You can earn this pin each year that you're a Brownie. You'll find that Girl Scouting and your faith have a lot in common!

1. Choose one line from the Girl Scout Law. Find a story, song, or poem from your faith with the same ideas. Talk with your family or friends about what the Law and the story, song, or poem have in common.

Tessa completed a clock and coin activity to help her better understand that every worker in "The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard" received the same agreed-to pay no matter what time they went to work at the master's vineyard. On the next page, she learned that the master of the vineyard represents God, the workers God's people, and the pay eternal life in heaven.
Tessa completed a clock and coin activity to help her better understand that every worker in "The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard" received the same agreed-to pay no matter what time they went to work at the master's vineyard. On the next page, she learned that the master of the vineyard represents God, the workers God's people, and the pay eternal life in heaven.

2. Find a woman in your own or another faith community. Ask her how she tries to use that line of the Law in her life.

Once again, I opted to help Tessa complete this requirement in an alternative way so I could control the quality of the lesson. Instead of finding a living woman of faith, I chose a historical woman of faith. Tessa has been studying modern American history this year and has a keen interest in the times and people surrounding the Civil War. I knew Harriet Tubman, a deeply religious Christian abolitionist who lived from 1820 to 1913, would be a good pick for Tessa's historic woman of faith as a Brownie.

Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom by Carole Boston Weatherford

Tessa's completed drawing and writing prompt for Tubman. She wrote, "She led slaves to freedom on the Underground Railroad," for how Harriet Tubman was fair.
Tessa's completed drawing and writing prompt for Tubman. She wrote, "She led slaves to freedom on the Underground Railroad," for how Harriet Tubman was fair.

3. Gather three inspirational quotes by women that fit with that line of the Girl Scout Law. Put them where you can see them every day!
Her favorite quote was...

"It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself."
- Eleanor Roosevelt, Former First Lady of the United States

How funny, I just noticed that we used a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt for Tessa's Daisy My Promise, My Faith pin too. Quite a quotable lady. It will be interesting to see how many more times she pops up during Tessa's Girl Scout career.

4. Make something to remind you of what you've learned. It might be a drawing, painting, or poster. You could also make up a story or a skit.

5. Keep the connection strong. Talk with your friends, family, or a group in your faith community about what you've learned about your faith and Girl Scouting. Ask them to help you live the Law and your faith. Maybe you can show them what you just made or perform your skit!
  • Instead of sharing her completed booklet, Tessa opted to print and pass out the color version of the "Honest and Fair" faith-based bookmarks included in the Growing Girls "Living 'Fair' All-In-One Booklet" activity pack. I was a little surprised by how excited she was to do this. She had a whole list of people she wanted to give them to.
  • Shared Tessa's work for earning her Brownie My Promise, My Faith Pin with the world via this blog.

Growing Girls "Living 'Fair' All-In-One Booklet Bookmarks

Growing Girls Logo
Looking for more My Promise, My Faith pin ideas?

Check out my Considerate & Caring Kit - Girl Scouts - "My Promise, My Faith" Pin - All Steps! printable scouting helper.

Tuesday, September 08, 2015

Physics: Force & Motion + Gravity + Isaac Newton (Block 1)

Our school days ran overly long last week (our first week of third grade). It's apparent that I'm going to have to drastically restructure our history plans and go back to a rotating block schedule for it and science. I can't figure any other way to work it. That means history will have to take a back seat to science for a while.

This is the fourth and final year of our first time around the history-science cycle we follow. I talked about the four-year cycle method way back when we started Ancient History. Here's a refresher as to the ordering.

Ancient History < > Life Science (First, Fifth, Ninth Grades)
Middle Ages < > Earth Science & Astronomy (Second, Sixth, Tenth Grades)
Early Modern < > Chemistry (Third, Seventh, Eleventh Grades)
Modern & Today < > Physics (Fourth, Eight, Twelfth Grades)

We're a year ahead, so that means Modern History and Physics are up for us this year. Luckily, physical science is common in the early grades, so materials were a good bit easier to come by than when we studied chemistry last year. However, creative, quality output options I found lacking.

We will primarily be using BrainPOP, BrainPOP Jr., Bill Nye the Science Guy DVDs, various science themed books by Nomad Press, and a couple of supplements from Teachers Pay Teachers in our study of physics this year.

Brain POP
 Explore Gravity!: With 25 Great Projects


Force & Motion - Day 1

Force & Motion - Day 2



Gravity - Day 1

Gravity pulls everything down toward the center of the earth. Tessa proved which way is straight down by creating plumb bobs with pencils, yarn and various objects around the school room. Her favorite bob had a plastic frog tied to it.
Gravity pulls everything down toward the center of the earth. Tessa proved which way is straight down by creating plumb bobs with pencils, yarn and various objects around the school room. Her favorite bob had a plastic frog tied to it.

Gravity - Day 2

Gravity - Day 3

Tessa and I created and tested a water level that we made out of clear plastic tubing, a funnel and colored water. Tessa learned that when water is in a confined space, gravity makes sure the top of it is level. Pretty cool!
Tessa and I created and tested a water level that we made out of clear plastic tubing, a funnel and colored water. Tessa learned that when water is in a confined space, gravity makes sure the top of it is level. Pretty cool!

Gravity - Day 4

Tessa fashioned a mobile from straws, paperclips and pictures drawn on card stock to better understand the relationship between gravity and balance. The theme for her mobile was our recent trip to Florida. It features pictures of the beach, a view of our condo at night from the pool, a pizza (doughnut on the opposite side), and a triple-scoop ice cream cone.
Tessa fashioned a mobile from straws, paperclips and pictures drawn on card stock to better understand the relationship between gravity and balance. The theme for her mobile was our recent trip to Florida. It features pictures of the beach, a view of our condo at night from the pool, a pizza (doughnut on the opposite side), and a triple-scoop ice cream cone.

Gravity - Day 5

Gravity - Day 6

Tessa swung a ball in a cup to see centripetal force in action. No matter how she swung it, the ball never fell out.
Tessa swung a ball in a cup to see centripetal force in action. No matter how she swung it, the ball never fell out.

Tessa created a mock Earth orbit with a drawing of the Earth taped into the bottom of a plastic bowl and a marble "moon" (the "moon" is the green blur on the right-hand side). She moved the bowl in a circular motion to experiment with centripetal and centrifugal force.
Tessa created a mock Earth orbit with a drawing of the Earth taped into the bottom of a plastic bowl and a marble "moon" (the "moon" is the green blur on the right-hand side). She moved the bowl in a circular motion to experiment with centripetal and centrifugal force.

Gravity - Day 7

Gravity - Day 8

Gravity - Day 9

Tessa played "Set the Bottle" to see how some carnival games use gravity to make it harder to win. I filled three bottles half full of water and then placed them in the freezer the day before so that one bottle froze upside down, one on its side and the third upright.
Tessa played "Set the Bottle" to see how some carnival games use gravity to make it harder to win. I filled three bottles half full of water and then placed them in the freezer the day before so that one bottle froze upside down, one on its side and the third upright.

Isaac Newton - Day 10

Monday, August 31, 2015

Home Art Studio: Second Grade - "Color Wheel"

Lured by pretty projects and clean design, I was so very tempted to switch our art program to lessons by Deep Space Sparkle this year. While she offers many wonderful, affordable lessons in print format, Tessa really works best during art with video guidance. Deep Space Sparkle offers some video lessons (the sample is very nicely done), but I couldn't justify the cost for a product we'll use only once and has no resale value (the video lessons are digital files).

Last year, we used Home Art Studio (a fairly new DVD-based leveled art program) for the first time. Tessa greatly enjoyed it and I found it easy to use. At just under thirty dollars retail, it's an excellent value for homeschoolers. We used First Grade last year because its around-the-world theme coordinated well with our history studies. I gave Tessa the option of using Second Grade or Third Grade this year. After checking out the student work galleries, she decide Second Grade looked more fun. So, that's the one we're using this year.

Home Art Studio: Second Gradee

After tracing around a large bowl on watercolor paper and then dividing the subsequent circle into six parts with the aid of a ruler, Tessa used green, yellow, orange, red, purple and blue tempera paints to create a color wheel. She will use the color wheel to help her choose complementary colors in future lessons.
After tracing around a large bowl on watercolor paper and then dividing the subsequent circle into six parts with the aid of a ruler, Tessa used green, yellow, orange, red, purple and blue tempera paints to create a color wheel. She will use the color wheel to help her choose complementary colors in future lessons. 

Tessa outlined her color wheel in black to make it pop.
Tessa outlined her color wheel in black to make it pop.

Tessa's completed color wheel.
Tessa's completed color wheel.

Thursday, August 27, 2015

Last-Minute Beach Getaway (Seagrove Beach, FL) - July 2015

What do you do when the beach and blue seas are calling your name, but your pooch is too old to stay at her usual digs? Take her with you, of course! I'm not sure why it took us all year to figure this out. It wasn't so much that the thought hadn't occurred to us, it was more committing ourselves to driving hundreds of miles with an elderly dog in tow, finding a nice, yet affordable place walking-distance to the beach that would also accept a dog, plus the logistics of doing so. (Not to mention, accepting that a cruise or trip to Disney just wasn't in the cards this year.)

A little over two weeks to vacation time, we knew if we didn't buckle down very soon, it was going to be a staycation for us and no one wanted that (well, Sweetpea probably would have been okay with it). Not long after, we logged onto VRBO.com, closed our eyes, and booked us a vacation. While not our most exotic getaway, it was a good and memorable trip.


Woohoo, no June grass! These were some of the clearest waters we have seen anywhere in Florida. (The dark blotches are gigantic schools of fish!)
Woohoo, no June grass! These were some of the clearest waters we have seen anywhere in Florida. (The dark blotches are gigantic schools of fish!)

In our many vacations to Florida, we had never tried tubing the emerald waters. The waves were such that we found it to be a most relaxing way to spend our days.
In our many vacations to Florida, we had never tried tubing the emerald waters. The waves were such that we found it to be a most relaxing way to spend our days.

Tessa delighted in daily visits from the ice cream truck!
Tessa delighted in daily visits from the ice cream truck!

Previous guests at the condo we stayed at had graciously left several new kites. Tessa selected her favorite and enjoyed several minutes of kite flying on the beach. This was another first for us. She was really good at making it perform loops. Me? Not so much.
Previous guests at the condo we stayed at had graciously left several new kites. Tessa selected her favorite and enjoyed several minutes of kite flying on the beach. This was another first for us. She was really good at making it perform loops. Me? Not so much. 

Tessa insisted on breakfast on the balcony. Who could blame her?
Tessa insisted on breakfast on the balcony. Who could blame her?

I think Florida weather agreed with Sweetpea, our thirteen-year-old wire fox terrier. Her arthritis improved to the point that she walked like a youngin again. A few days upon returning from our trip, her lungs started gurgling. We found out that she has congestive heart failure. My husband has another week of vacation coming up. We're trying to decide whether she can handle one more trip, as she did so well and seemed so happy.
I think Florida weather agreed with Sweetpea, our thirteen-year-old wire fox terrier. Her arthritis improved to the point that she walked like a youngin again. A few days upon returning from our trip, her lungs started gurgling. We found out that she has congestive heart failure. My husband has another week of vacation coming up. We're trying to decide whether she can handle one more trip, as she did so well and seemed so happy.

After one sun-drenched day, we enjoyed an early dinner at Pizza By the Sea, a favorite Fort Walton Beach eatery of ours.
After one sun-drenched day, we enjoyed an early dinner at Pizza By the Sea, a favorite Fort Walton Beach eatery of ours.

Staying a little further west on the Panhandle this time, we discovered a new ice cream haunt. Blue Mountain Beach Creamery makes their own ice cream and features creative flavors. The banana pudding cone I had was so good I ordered it both times we stopped by.
Staying a little further west on the Panhandle this time, we discovered a new ice cream haunt. Blue Mountain Beach Creamery makes their own ice cream and features creative flavors. The banana pudding cone I had was so good I ordered it both times we stopped by.

Monday, August 17, 2015

Third Grade 2015 - Age 8

A bit of a slow start this morning, but we got 'er done. Tessa's quite excited about starting so many new curricula this year. Wordly Wise 3000, CLE Reading and Beast Academy were big hits. Hopefully, that enthusiasm will endure. Tomorrow, we attempt New American Cursive and CAP's Writing & Rhetoric Book 1: Fable. Wish us luck!

See how she's grown! - Tessa's Second Grade 2014 - Age 7 pic.

Tessa's first day of third grade!
Tessa's first day of third grade!

Friday, June 19, 2015

Tessa Makes "Big" Hair Donation to Wigs for Kids

It was high time for a hair cut! After mentioning to Tessa about a month ago that I thought her hair might be long enough for her to donate to a child in need, she decided this was something she definitely wanted to do. Committed to providing long enough pieces of her hair to help make a "girl wig," she donated five ponytails 13-14 inches in length each to Wigs for Kids. Wigs for Kids is partnered with Girl Scouts to help bring awareness to the great need for hair donations. Participants have the opportunity to "learn more about illnesses that cause hair loss" and can help "make a difference in the lives of other children." Any Girl Scout may also receive a custom patch to commemorate her hair donation.

Tessa donated five ponytails 13-14 inches in length each to Wigs for Kids. It can take 20-30 ponytails to make one wig.

Tessa wanted to donate enough of her hair to help make a girl-length wig.

Wigs for Kids custom Girl Scout patch